Baseball: Flanagan blasts Cooper City

Falcons crush seven home runs

advance to face West Broward in district final

April 26, 2011|Gary Curreri, Sun Sentinel Correspondent

PEMBROKE PINES – Danny Zardon and Andres Sanchez each hit two home runs as Flanagan High School took advantage of clutch two-out hits to build an early lead and coasted to the District 12-6A victory over Cooper City on Tuesday night.

Host Flanagan (19-2) scored 12 of its 14 runs in the contest with two outs on seven home runs.

"It doesn't matter how many outs we have," Flanagan coach Ray Evans said of his defending 2010 Class 6A champion. The Falcons, which also won state titles in 2005 and 2006 were the Baseball America National Champion last season. "We have seven guys in our lineup who are capable of hitting it out at any time. We are better in every offensive category than last year's team."

Sanchez got things started in the bottom of the first inning with a three-run home run off Cooper City starting pitcher Jared Noretsky. Sanchez drilled a 2-2 pitch over the left centerfield fence for his 15th home run of the season. He would hit his team-leading 16th home run in the fourth.

Ricky Santiago, Carlos Lopez and Mike Melendez also hit home runs for the Falcons, who will host West Broward for the district title on Thursday at 7 p.m. West Broward defeated Western, 2-0 in the other semifinal.

Cooper City (8-13) loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the third and picked up a pair of runs to pull within 5-2. Kevin Couvillon had a sacrifice fly and Bradley Cassidy added an RBI single in the inning. The Cowboys could get no closer than 7-4 and the Falcons put the game away as Melendez hit a walk-off, two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth for the mercy-rule finish.

West Broward (11-8) blanked Western (10-10), 2-0 as Alex Zapata and Tyler Draughon combined for a three hitter in the other semifinal. Zapata went 5-1/3 innings and allowed three hits, two walks and struck out three. Draughon earned the save with 1-2/3 innings of no-hit ball with one strikeout.